2006 Kansas City Royals Predictions & Season Preview

June 5, 2008 | Posted By Larry Cook

The 2005 Kansas City Royals were terrible to put it nicely. They were able to manage just a 56-106 record last season which has them believing they can improve with their 2006 Kansas City Royals predictions. My response is, I hope so. Things couldn’t get any worse, could they? It would be highly unlikely that Kansas City doesn’t improve at all, but I can’t see them winning more than 70 games max, which will still leave them at dead last in the very tough American League Central.

I’m not sure a New York Yankees hall of fame lineup with Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, and Marris could support the Kansas City Royals pitching staff which usually has their team out of the game before the 5th inning. The Royals brought in Scott Elarton and Joe Mays from the division rival Indians and Twins respectively. They also brought in Mark Redman, who comes over from the National League from the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are looking for these veterans to join with their young guns Grinke and Hernandez to form a formidable squad, but I just don’t see it happening. Redman lost 15 of 20 games last season with Pittsburgh and Mays had an earned run average of close to 6 while just winning 6 games against 10 losses.

If a comparison can even be made, the Royals were better at the plate than on the mound, but they were by no means great in the batter’s box. Mike Sweeney was their best player last season just as he has been for as long as I can remember, and he also found himself on the disabled list, another familiar spot. He isn’t a franchise type player. He needs more help around him if the Royals are expecting to get better and it just doesn’t look like he’ll be getting it in 2006. Reggie Sanders is on his last leg and won’t be able to put up the kinds of number the Royals are going to need from him.

Following trends are an imperative part of being a successful baseball bettor. One major trend that sticks out in terms of the Royals last season is their difficulty opening a series with a win. They lost 38 of 51 series opening games including a pathetic 20 of those out of 25 road openers. This is a trend normally associated with poor teams and you can expect it to continue for the Royals this season. Also, if Kansas City lost their first game of a series, they went on to lose the second game 28 of 38 times. If you were to have gone against the Kansas City Royals in the first 2 games of a series you would have went 62-23 and gained major profits. The Royals shouldn’t be as bad in the second game of a series following an opening game loss, but I expect their poor play in the first game of a series to continue and we should be able to make some nice profits off of going against Kansas City in series openers, especially on the road.

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